Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing fantastic and having a wonderful holiday season. It is fun here seeing all of the Christmas decorations but it still being about 90 degrees every day, haha. St least the nights have cooled down but it still is Oaxaca 100% over here.
*Catholic Holidays* This week started the run of the different catholic holidays, especially those dedicated to their images like the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin of Juquilita. So we’ve had to avoid a few of these tiny towns while they go and party over their images. We have started to realize how catholic this area really is. The good thing is that Zimatlán has some variety in it’s religious life, but these tiny towns roundabout are super dedicated to their images and kind of hard to do missionary work in.
Funny story, one night we came back to the house a little earlier to do our studies and at the house next door they started to have a Virgin Mary “veneration” (worship) service. The thing went on for nearly 2 hours, and was super awkward and got so repetitive and annoying that we had to get out of the house for a while until it calmed down.
Today is also the main day for the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration so we are super happy to be out of the town we were living in before, who has a giant church dedicated to that image. Few.
*Transfers* This week was transfers in thr missions, and while Elder Tobler and I stayed together it seems like every other area in the mission got changed. It is crazy! A ton of the sister areas are now Elder areas, and a bunch of areas got opened up too because of the 20 missionaries that arrived.
The biggest thing for me was that my district got completely changed. We went from 4 missionaries (2 being sisters), to now 6 of us, all elders. This meaning we can finally have in-person district counsels. After 3 transfers of doing it all on zoom, we now can do it the better way, in-person!
The really crazy thing was now who is in my district! My previous companion, Elder Torres, was just sent to open the area next door and to train there too, meaning he’s in my district again! We were actually so excited for this because when we were companions, we always would talk about the possibility of it happening. And now it’s a reality! How cool. This is going to be an awesome transfer!
*Pictures*! -Last District Photo of the transfer -The nightlife of Zimatlán is always super fun -Some old building in this one town we visit
Have a great week everyone! Take care! -Elder Ord
*Catholic Holidays* This week started the run of the different catholic holidays, especially those dedicated to their images like the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary, and the Virgin of Juquilita. So we’ve had to avoid a few of these tiny towns while they go and party over their images. We have started to realize how catholic this area really is. The good thing is that Zimatlán has some variety in it’s religious life, but these tiny towns roundabout are super dedicated to their images and kind of hard to do missionary work in.
Funny story, one night we came back to the house a little earlier to do our studies and at the house next door they started to have a Virgin Mary “veneration” (worship) service. The thing went on for nearly 2 hours, and was super awkward and got so repetitive and annoying that we had to get out of the house for a while until it calmed down.
Today is also the main day for the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration so we are super happy to be out of the town we were living in before, who has a giant church dedicated to that image. Few.
*Transfers* This week was transfers in thr missions, and while Elder Tobler and I stayed together it seems like every other area in the mission got changed. It is crazy! A ton of the sister areas are now Elder areas, and a bunch of areas got opened up too because of the 20 missionaries that arrived.
The biggest thing for me was that my district got completely changed. We went from 4 missionaries (2 being sisters), to now 6 of us, all elders. This meaning we can finally have in-person district counsels. After 3 transfers of doing it all on zoom, we now can do it the better way, in-person!
The really crazy thing was now who is in my district! My previous companion, Elder Torres, was just sent to open the area next door and to train there too, meaning he’s in my district again! We were actually so excited for this because when we were companions, we always would talk about the possibility of it happening. And now it’s a reality! How cool. This is going to be an awesome transfer!
*Pictures*! -Last District Photo of the transfer -The nightlife of Zimatlán is always super fun -Some old building in this one town we visit
Have a great week everyone! Take care! -Elder Ord